Named to honor early settler William Wadsworth, the town was
formed by the Colonial Land Company sometime after the land was purchased in the
fall of 1902.

It became a stop on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad
and by 1907 it had been granted its own post office. Seven years later the population
was reported as 150 and the town had a telephone system in place.

By the
mid 1920s the population had swelled to nearly 900 although the town had no businesses.
By the mid 1930s Wadsworth established its own school district which consolidated
with the Bay City
ISD 1949.

The population had declined to just 400 by 1940 although three
businesses were still in operation. By 1949 the population had declined to a low
of 80 residents which grew slowly back to 152 for the 1990 and 2000 census. It
still appears on the official Texas map with a population given as 152 (2008).